Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known worldwide, but the world's third-largest such festival in Mazatlan, Mexico draws more than 600,000 people for its Sunday Carnaval parade - the largest event among many.

Photo: Bob Cooper

Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known...

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Exotically dressed (and mostly undressed) dancers are part of the spectacle of Carnaval parades in Mazatlan, Mexico.

Photo: Bob Cooper

Exotically dressed (and mostly undressed) dancers are part of the...

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Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known worldwide, but the world's third-largest such festival in Mazatlan, Mexico draws more than 600,000 people for its Sunday Carnaval parade - the largest event among many.

Photo: JORGE OSUNA

Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known...

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Costumed dancers ride floats along the promenade on the Pacific Ocean during Carnaval.

Photo: GoMazatlan.com

Costumed dancers ride floats along the promenade on the Pacific...

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Beauty queens representing cities and regions throughout Mexico compete for the title of Queen of the Carnaval.

Photo: Bob Cooper

Beauty queens representing cities and regions throughout Mexico...

Image 6 of 23

Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known worldwide, but the world's third-largest such festival in Mazatlan, Mexico draws more than 600,000 people for its Sunday Carnaval parade - the largest event among many.

Photo: JORGE OSUNA

Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known...

Image 7 of 23

It s the parades that have been Carnaval s signature events ever since decorated bicycles and horse carriages enlivened the malecon route in 1898. Now mounted on trucks, the floats are creative and lavish, flashing with multicolored lights, thumping with banda music (the region s odd blend of mariachi and German polka) and jumping with costumed and barely-costumed singers and dancers.

Photo: GoMazatlan.com

It s the parades that have been Carnaval s signature events ever...

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Sold-out bullfights are just part of the three-ring circus of events that fill Carnaval week in Mazatlan.

Photo: Bob Cooper

Sold-out bullfights are just part of the three-ring circus of...

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The spiral, symbolizing eternity, is a common petroglyph carving seen on boulders on Las Labradas beach, near Mazatlan.

A recently opened museum in modern and thatched-roof buildings showcase artifacts related to the petroglyph-decorated boulders at Las Labradas beach, near Mazatlan.

Photo: Bob Cooper

A recently opened museum in modern and thatched-roof buildings...

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Rio s Carnaval and New Orleans Mardi Gras are better known worldwide, but the world s third-largest such festival in Mazatlan, Mexico draws more than 600,000 people for the Sunday parade the largest event among many.

Photo: GoMazatlan.com

Rio s Carnaval and New Orleans Mardi Gras are better known...

Image 13 of 23

Rio s Carnaval and New Orleans Mardi Gras are better known worldwide, but the world s third-largest such festival in Mazatlan, Mexico draws more than 600,000 people for the Sunday parade the largest event among many.

Photo: GoMazatlan.com

Rio s Carnaval and New Orleans Mardi Gras are better known...

Image 14 of 23

Culture and tradition share equal billing with food and beverage at the three-ring circus that is Carnaval in Mazatlan. The baseball stadium is transformed into a sold-out concert venue, with nightly themed performances by the region s opera, ballet, symphony and dance companies.

Culture and tradition share equal billing with food and beverage at the three-ring circus that is Carnaval in Mazatlan. The baseball stadium is transformed into a sold-out concert venue, with nightly themed performances by the region s opera, ballet, symphony and dance companies.

Culture and tradition share equal billing with food and beverage at the three-ring circus that is Carnaval in Mazatlan. The baseball stadium is transformed into a sold-out concert venue, with nightly themed performances by the region s opera, ballet, symphony and dance companies.

Culture and tradition share equal billing with food and beverage at the three-ring circus that is Carnaval in Mazatlan. The baseball stadium is transformed into a sold-out concert venue, with nightly themed performances by the region s opera, ballet, symphony and dance companies.

The Queen of the Carnaval ceremony on the malecon in Mazatlan, Mexico is followed by a massive fireworks and searchlight show, with flares fired from the beach and from boats docked offshore above the C-shaped bay.

Photo: JORGE OSUNA

The Queen of the Carnaval ceremony on the malecon in Mazatlan,...

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It s the parades that have been Carnaval s signature events ever since decorated bicycles and horse carriages enlivened the malecon route in 1898. Now mounted on trucks, the floats are creative and lavish, flashing with multicolored lights, thumping with banda music (the region s odd blend of mariachi and German polka) and jumping with costumed and barely-costumed singers and dancers.

Photo: GoMazatlan.com

It s the parades that have been Carnaval s signature events ever...

Image 20 of 23

It s the parades that have been Carnaval s signature events ever since decorated bicycles and horse carriages enlivened the malecon route in 1898. Now mounted on trucks, the floats are creative and lavish, flashing with multicolored lights, thumping with banda music (the region s odd blend of mariachi and German polka) and jumping with costumed and barely-costumed singers and dancers.

Photo: GoMazatlan.com

It s the parades that have been Carnaval s signature events ever...

Image 21 of 23

Culture and tradition share equal billing with food and beverage at the three-ring circus that is Carnaval in Mazatlan. The baseball stadium is transformed into a sold-out concert venue, with nightly themed performances by the region s opera, ballet, symphony and dance companies.

Each night during Carnaval, a river of humanity flows onto Mazatlan's malecón.

The world's longest uninterrupted promenade, curving beguilingly for four miles on the Pacific, is taken over nightly by families and dressed-to-kill singles for a week-long blur of parades, concerts, beauty contests and fireworks. Shrimp is grilled and margaritas mixed on street corners where mariachi bands brass up the mood. Music, food smells and celebrants spill out of the restaurants, nightclubs, bars and small hotels. The spectacle repeats itself for the 116th year on Feb. 27 to March 4.

More Information

If you go

GETTING THERE

US Airways (through Phoenix), American (through Dallas) and Aeromexico (through Mexico City) all fly to Mazatlan from Houston. Taxis are about $25 from the airport.

WHERE TO STAY

Budget inns on the malecón are too noisy if you plan to sleep, but high-rise resorts north of town are too far from the action. The Goldilocks solution is a hotel located not far from the festival, such as these two (rates based on staying throughout Carnaval week):

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Hotel: This family-friendly low-rise has three pools, a beach and a zipline. Rates from $72 per night; hotelplayamazatlan.com.

El Cid Marina Beach: This Mediterranean hotel on a marina features nice touches such as fully equipped kitchens and marble bathrooms. Rates from $88 per night; elcid.com/marina_beach.

WHERE TO EAT

Mazatlan is famous for its fresh shrimp, showcased at seafood restaurants such as La Marinera (right on the beach), Pancho's or Los Arcos.

EXCURSIONS

Pronatours (elcid.com/pronatours_mazatlan) and Mazatlan Tours (mazatlantours.org) offer land and sea adventures ranging from island hopping and sport fishing to tequila tours and visits to the beach and new museum at Las Labradas (see sidebar at left).

A new museum at Las Labradas beach, 45 minutes by highway and dirt road from Mazatlan, is beginning to lure tourists away from the more populous beaches of the resort city. They come to admire pre-Hispanic petroglyphs (rock carvings) found inside the museum and outside on beach boulders.

The two fields of coal-black boulders are decorated with petroglyphs - about 300 in all - that date back 1,000 to 1,500 years at the newly protected archaeological and ecological preserve. Surrounding the boulders is a long, seashell-mottled beach that tumbles down to the Pacific. It was deserted when I visited but for a lone net fisherman in pursuit of mahi-mahi and two giant flocks of brown pelicans. Leading down to the boulders is a path of sand and crushed seashells, rimmed by walls of volcanic rocks - some carved with petroglyphs, too.

Many of the boulders reveal carvings of human figures, faces, fishes and mysterious symbols that puzzle even archaeologists. Is it art or merely pre-Hispanic graffiti? The most prevalent image is the spiral, symbolizing life and eternity. The carvings, most made by nomadic tribes with no access to metals, were chiseled with sharp rocks. The boulders are smooth, dry and far enough from the surf that the only danger is a skinned knee or a crab pinch if you're not careful.

The new museum is found above the beach and boulders. It displays sharpened rocks used to carve petroglyphs and tells the geological, archaeological and anthropological story of the area.

Residents of nearby villages have known of the petroglyph boulders for centuries, but archaeologists reportedly only found out about them 15 years ago. The beach was designated as a protected archaeological zone in 2012.

Bob Cooper

Rio's Carnaval and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are better known worldwide, but the world's third-largest such festival in Mazatlan draws more than 600,000 people for the Sunday parade - the largest event among many. Most are from Mexico, but many visitors also arrive from the U.S., Canada and other Latin American countries. The tradition, a "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, commenced in Mazatlan in 1898. A heavy police presence ensures that the potent mix of crowds, street music and Pacifico beer, which flows nightly until 4 a.m., is remarkably peaceful.

"Put that many people in that small a space with all that alcohol in America, and you'd have problems," says Kurt Miller, 53, an Oregon truck stop owner who spends several weeks a year at his winter home in Mazatlan with his wife, P.J. "But at Carnaval, everyone gets along and has a good time." At his first one, he sat with Mexican friends and their 60 extended family members - grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. "It's a huge part of the culture."

Culture and tradition share equal billing with food and beverage at the three-ring circus that is Carnaval. The baseball stadium is transformed into a sold-out concert venue, with nightly themed performances by the region's opera, ballet, symphony and dance companies.

-On the night I attended, dance troupes accompanied by a full orchestra and chorus performed show tunes ("Mary Poppins" songs are just as delightful in Spanish). Seniors and couples filled the stadium seats, while los niños in centerfield folding chairs chomped away on churros.

The beauty contest the next night on the malecón is another crowd favorite. Most of the stiletto-and-gown-wearing contestants vying for Queen of the Carnaval were teens from cities and states around Mexico, but one arrived from Ecuador and two from Southern California. By custom, most were dutifully escorted to the stage by their mothers.

The ceremony was followed by a massive fireworks and searchlight show, with flares fired from the beach and from boats docked offshore above the C-shaped bay. Hip-hop, classical and Mexican hits boomed from speakers all along the seawall, with the beat coordinated to the explosions in the sky.

I expected families at the children's dances the next day, but not at the bullfight. This tradition, too, is revered by Carnaval-goers of all ages. It begins with preliminary bouts-a flurry of pawing, snorting, charging and ultimately collapsing bulls.

It wasn't all one-sided last winter, as one picador was gored and limped off after brushing too close to a bull's horns. Finally the crowd roared their approval when the horseback headliner strutted out. Spaniard Pablo Hermoso is the Rafael Nadal of rejoneo (bullfighting on Arabian horses), and he displayed the skill of a champion athlete in his deadly dance with the bull, Gitano. After much taunting, Gitano was soon vanquished, roses were tossed into the ring and mules were summoned to haul off the body. Bullfights, I learned, are an acquired taste.

It's the parades that have been Carnaval's signature events ever since decorated bicycles and horse carriages enlivened the malecón route in 1898. Now mounted on trucks, the floats are creative and lavish, flashing with multicolored lights, thumping with banda music (the region's odd blend of mariachi and German polka) and jumping with costumed - and barely costumed - singers and dancers. In one float, a chorus of beaming grandmothers sang, danced and waved to the Sunday parade throng, which far exceeded the 440,000 population of Mazatlan. On the sidewalks, vendors sold light sticks and toys to the kids, and masks, rainbow-striped Afro wigs and bead necklaces to adults.

"We really enjoy watching the cultural shows, the crowning of the child queen and the fireworks," says Steve Backman, 53, a chiropractor from California who settled with his wife and three daughters in Mazatlan seven years ago. One of 7,000 expatriates from the U.S. and Canada who reside year-round in Mazatlan, he heads up Friends of Mexico, which provides scholarships and school supplies to local students. "Unlike New Orleans and Rio, Mazatlan celebrates Carnaval with a family atmosphere," he says, "plus a lot of beer thrown in."

Once the last of the floats, bands and dance troupes complete the parade route, spectators wander back to their buses, cars and colorful pulmonia cabs (picture the lovechild of a golf cart and a Manila Jeepney), or to restaurants, bars and hotels to celebrate longer into the night. Most return to the scene on Fat Tuesday, the traditional final night of Carnaval, for one last parade, one final blowout of color, sound and motion. Then it's back to normal until the same time, next year.